So since I essentially live on twitter (and sometimes facebook) I really haven’t updated the blog much.

A lot has happened in my life. I bought a house in the Grove City area (thanks to Tammy and Mom on this one). I played through the summer season of kickball with 2G1K. We didn’t do so hot, but I think we all had fun. I joined up with a different team for the fall league called Why So Serious (yes the reference is to what you think). I have had couple games with them and I have definitely enjoyed the season with them so far. Works been…well work, but the pay is good so I don’t complain to much.

Their probably has been a lot more that I should mention that has happened, but honestly I’m too tired from tonight’s kickball game to finish it out. Peace out folks!

Anyway the first game was fun even though we got creamed by the best team in the league. At least we got a practice game in after that because one of the other teams forfeited and the remaining team was kind enough to play us. You can view pics of the team on flickr by @kevindoyle and @seanelavelle.

In years past, I have blogged about this family tradition. For those that are new, here is the run down. Every year my parents, my sister and I (and our significant others if we have any at the time) work the festival. We sell Lemonade at a dollar a glass. Since the supplies, booth sponsorship, and workers are donate by our family the church makes pure profit on the sales. We even pay for what we drink. No one gets free Lemonade at the festival (although Dad will probably buy you one if you are a Police Officer working the festival or a member of the church Clergy). Our previous record for sales was 1900ish for a 19 hour weekend. This year we sold 2007 for the same 19 hour weekend.

It was a very busy and very hectic weekend. My body hurt each night by the time I reached closing. I know Shantel’s back had to be bothering her something fierce, and mom and dad were probably feeling the pain as well. My brother-in-law Matt got off the easiest, only having to work around half of the festival, but he wasn’t any slouch while he was there helping us. Tempers flared, words were spoken, but in the end we stuck together and tackled it like the well oiled machine that our family is. I have to say I was proudest of my niece Ayla who busted her butt to help out despite her young age. And she did very well to boot. I ran into some old friends from high school I hadn’t seen in years. My friend and coworker, Mrblong, even visited the festival and according to him had a good time.

During the start of the final day of the festival, my parents asked point blank if I thought we should do the festival next year. I didn’t have an answer for them at the time, and told them we should wait to see how the day plays out. When my sister found out about this she asked me, “You told them no. Right?”

Before the festival started on the last day, the church does a quick (even by Catholic standards) mass for all the festival workers under the food tent. Most who know me well know that while I generally don’t talk a great deal about religion to others, I am a fairly religious person. I just tend to flow outside of organized religion. The homily the priest delivered was about spreading God’s word. He mused that a converstation between God and Jesus after the resurrection would have gone something like this:

G: So who did you put in charge of spreading my word on Earth?
J: My friends.
G: The same ones that denied you, betrayed you, and ran away from you scared?
J: Yes.
G: So what’s your backup plan?
J: If they don’t do it, it doesn’t get done.

I thought about these words the rest of the day. Truth be told, I have been thinking about them all this week.

When we stop doing the festival, who will do it? I’m sure that the church could find people to run the both, but would they really have the best interests of the church in mind, or would they spend more time socializing and treating the festival like an obligation that they have to do because they have kids in Catholic School? Would they just decided to delete the booth from the festival line up, and if they did how long before it was just forgotten?

It would be nice to do other things on Memorial Day weekend, like going to MARCON, but I know I would miss one of the few activities we still do together as a family. I would miss the people we run into every year at the festival. I would miss the Lemonade.

Obviously a lot has been going on in my life, which is why I haven’t been blogging. Like John, I’ve spent most of my free time doing some soul searching and trying to figure out what I want to do with my life, and obviously I’m not just talking about my professional career here.

For about the past year, I was officially whoring myself out on the internet. I joined eHarmony and went on dates with more than just few women. They were either insane, flighty, or just plain had nothing in common with me (matched on 29 areas of compatibility my ass). I finally got so fed up with dating that I canceled the service. I’m not closed to the idea, but I’m not actively looking for it anymore.

I also made another realization. I’m fast approaching an age where I will probably not want to have kids due to being the old parent who can’t keep up and enjoy it. It really sucks too because I have always wanted to have kids of my own. And its not that as a man I am physically in capable of impregnating a woman till the day I die. The problem is that when I do remarry, I prefer it be someone close to my age. That currently means I’m looking for someone between 25 to 35, the tail end of a woman’s biological clock. I guess I really shouldn’t worry about it so much, it always turns out for the best in the end.

On to more fun news.

Misty got her wisdom teeth taken out, and I helped her out the day of the surgery. Surprisingly she didn’t come out with much in the way of side effects (like the dry socket I got). This is prompted me to tell her that, “I hate you”, and, “I’m going to start calling you Wolverine since you heal as fast as he does.”

I got my car back from the shop. They had it done just under two weeks, and I have to say I was quite impressed with the work.

Memorial Day Weekend saw the annual family tradition of selling Lemonade at the St Dominic’s festival. The weather was decent, so we were extremely busy. We sold 1517 glasses over the festival (I didn’t keep track of days this year since I was exhausted each night). The most memorable point for me, was Sunday when Anthony and Ayla showed up to play at the festival. They ended up working for about an hour, Ayla helping Shantel on the front end of the stand serving customers and Anthony helping out in back squeezing and mixing glasses. It looks like in a few more years they will be helping us as festival workers.

Katy was kind enough to lend me her SUV, so I could go buy my new TV. I picked up a Samsung 40″ LCD with Full 1080 at 60Hz. It has 3 HDMI ports, 3 RCA ports, 2 Component ports, one 15-pin VGA port, and a partridge in a pear tree. I also picked up a Panasonic Home Theater in a Box with a 5 Disc upscaling DVD player. The mot coveted edition, was the PS3 and a copy of Rockband. For the record, the drums are hard, even on easy.

After getting disgusted with myself in the mirror, I preordered a copy of Wii Fit. I was quite depressed at my first weigh in, but have been devoting anywhere from 30 minutes to 1 hour each day to exercise with it. While it does make exercising interesting and sometimes fun (depending on the activity), do not be fooled into thinking this is just a game. It really does make me sweat and leaves my muscles sore after a workout. I’ve been using the Fit for about 11 days and I’ve dropped 13 pounds. Here is hoping I can stick with it.

On a final note, a coworker lent me a copy of The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide. While the book is mainly a satire, it surprisingly pointed out some interesting strategies regarding the game. Its also showed me there is an actual World RPS Society.

Peace Out.

Dark stuff aside, mad props to Michael and Darci for tying the knot last Saturday. Its about damn time!

Now for he thought that brought about the post. Imagine your driving down the road with your friend (let’s call him Mraz) on your way to see a movie (let’s say Speed Racer). You’re sitting at a stop light, when the large passenger van in front of you suddenly throws it into reverse and floors it into the front of your car, totally demolishing the bumper, the grill, the hood, and bows in both fenders. Now lets imagine that the driver in question (probably) has no insurance. What kind of mood would you be in?

On the bright side, the rental they gave me is a 2008 Mazda 6. Its not nearly as fuel efficient as my Mazda 3 “Renivatio” (yes I name my cars), but its still a lot of fun to drive.

In January of 2006, I made the following post to my old blog

For the past few years I have never made a New Years resolution. This is because I made a New Years resolution to never make another New Years resolution again. Till now it was the only resolution I ever stuck with. This year my resolution is to get on with my life. Happy New Year to all, and best of luck in the year to come.

Since that day my resolution for that past few years is to get on with my life and enjoy it to the fullest. Ok so I’ve added the last part since then, so sue me ;P.

Looking back 2007 has been a great year for me and those friends I hold dear. I changed jobs twice and am now making double what I did at the begining of last year. In May I took a big step to following “getting on with my life”. I even started dating again. (Try not to die of shock ;P) I’m still searching for the right person, but to be honest I’m not going to rush things. Its kind of funny how things always seem to work out.

Anyway enough about the past lest I forget rule 58. May the New Year bring you joy a prosperity, and may the good Lord watch over you on any dark roads you must travel.

The thanksgiving holiday was fun a very relaxing. I spent time with family, and gorged myself silly. I also got in a lot of over due WoW play time. W007!

After I got back on Sunday, I hit the movies with Mraz, Katy, and John. We went to see Disney’s “Enchanted”, a reverse 10th Kingdom. Funny how all of these stories seem to take place in New York. Anyway the movie was kind of cute. It definitely did a good job of making me want to vomit in the first 15 minutes, but after that a reality based romantic comedy set in. I highly recommend seeing it at least once.

After the movie we ended up at Stake N Shake witnessing a manager and waitress trading good natured witty jabs for our amusement. All in all a good time.

Well back to work, let me hide the joy.

Sorry I get excited when the Buckeyes beat Michigan.

So, I’ve been a bit busy lately. Needless to say, I haven’t had time to blog about it. A lot of cool things are happening for me now.

The client I was working for offered me a ridiculous amount of money to come work for them. I start officially December 3rd.

My Grandma and the girls have an annual ritual to go to Jeffersonville and shop. This year I tagged along (originally it was only supposed to be for lunch, but I ended up staying the whole time because I needed some new clothes). I ended up getting some really good deals on new clothes and gym shoes.

I have made several trips to a new favorite hang out called Momo’s. Every trip I have taken there has been a blast.

Ray is moving Cuts Off High, to a larger location down the street. He has a new business partner, and is going to be doing booth rentals. Congrats to him.

Wayne and Brie came up to go to a munch with Fightclub TNG. The group seemed really nice, so I think we are all going to look at becoming members. Wayne also helped me with a home improvement project. He is definitely the master handy man.

I got a new gaming laptop that roxorz! It is made by ASUS. Frame rates in my games went up about 6 fold.

All and all things are going great.

Anyway, John, Katy, and I made a road trip to Cleveland this weekend to visit the Seven Floors of Hell. after I had to visit three banks to find an ATM that worked, I met up with the pair at Katy’s. We climbed into the CRV and hit the open road, you know after we stopped at Starbucks so the overly caffeinated and sugar high crazy duo could get more fuel. That car ride was a blast (seriously, I had many good laughs)! We made a pit stop at a rest area on the way up where a veding machine dispensed pop in such a fashion, that it held us spell bound. Robating arms like a skill crane bringing you your cold twenty ounce beverage are works of modern art. We decided to stop off at a TGI Fridays, which was much further from the exit than logic would dictate. On a side note we found out a mall up there has a department store called Ears (ok, maybe the S was burned out on the sign, but then again maybe not). We ended up sitting next to the server station, where Katy pulled her ever popular “I’m talking about him and he’s right behind me isn’t he?” But even worse than that was listening in on the wait staffs conversations, it sounded almost like the plot to the movie Waiting. Kind of creepy. After dinner we headed out to the Haunted House, or 7 houses to be exact. Not being Haunted House N00B5, we brought extra cash, so we could get our hands on the coveted speed pass, or no waiting in line. Some of the houses were really lame, most were pretty good. The 3-d Pyscho Circus was awesome, because the glasses made everything stick out. A very cool effect. Overall I’d have to say the Seven Floors of Hell didn’t live up to all the hype. It was a fun trip still. The ride back was quite eventful. John slept, Katy sang to her iPod as she drove, and I watched the scenery deep in thought.

The next morning I got out of bed, only to realize I left my cell phone in Katy’s car. DOH! So I hope online and shot her a TXT through Verizon’s web site. I waited a bit for a reply, before I decided to make my trip out to Gamestop to obtain my coveted prize, Guitar Hero 3 Legends of Rock. On the ride back, I met up with John and Katy in my complex to get my phone back and waved to them as they headed to the same store for the same prize (great minds think alike). I opened the box, inserted my Wii mote into the Gibson Les Paul, and started to rock it out. A few hours later, I was dueling a demon to a Guitar Version of “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. difficulty beaten, three more to go. The song list in this game is just phenomanal, Metallica’s One, Paint it Black, Welcome to the Jungle, and Bulls on Parade just to name a few. If you have a Wii, get the Wii version of this game!

In the evening I gave Mraz a call, and met up with him for dinner. Following dinner we played several round of Team Fortress 2, before calling it a night.

Monday morning rolls around, and work is work. Not bad, but really busy, so oh well.

L8rs peeps.